Tuesday, November 4, 2008

According to a new study by Canadian psychologists, the mere act of focusing the brain causes people to lose control at the buffet table. When the researchers forced a group of undergraduates to work at summarizing a near-incomprehensible text — and let them choose what to eat for lunch — the students consumed hundreds more calories than students allowed to relax and daydream. (While the mind is often referred to as a muscle, the intense thinkers burned only three more calories per hour than the people who were allowed to space out.)

The research builds on previous experiments showing that giving the brain an intense workout leads people to let down their guard and eat foods (like chocolate-chip cookies) that they normally try to avoid.